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California students should lead DREAM Act

THE ISSUE:
With the federal DREAM Act stalled in Congress, the California DREAM Act is a way to legalize Cal Grants and scholarship aid for undocumented students.

OUR STANCE:
UCLA students have a duty to ensure the California DREAM Act passes in the state legislature. Students can help California take a leading role nationally in passing the federal act.

By Editorial Board

March 3, 2011 12:56 a.m.

For the thousands of undocumented students attending or applying to public colleges and universities in California, nothing could be more relevant than the California DREAM Act.

And at a time when California is focused almost entirely on how to get the state’s finances back in shape, it is easy for other issues to fall by the wayside.

The California bill, introduced by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, is composed of Assembly Bills 130 and 131. Together they would allow undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition to receive Cal Grants and to receive privately funded scholarships, like many that UCLA offers.

Cal Grants play an enormous role in making the University of California accessible; one-third of undergraduates receive money from those grant funds.

For many, the grants make a UC education possible. It is hard to overstate the impact this would have on college affordability for undocumented students at negligible cost to the state.

Financial concerns are especially pressing in light of the threefold increase in UC student fees over the past decade.

The UC has directed more money to financial aid to ease the impact of the increases, but that is where undocumented students, currently ineligible to receive financial aid, are left to fend for themselves.

Without assistance, these students have to find ways to pay for the increases themselves ““ or drop out. The California DREAM Act would remedy this.

Unlike the national DREAM Act, which failed in the U.S. Senate last December, the California DREAM Act provides no path to citizenship, meaning undocumented graduates would still have trouble finding work.

National action remains the single most important thing that could help these students, but in light of the current Congress’s conservative tilt, that action is likely years away.

That makes it more important than ever that California take a leadership role. Successful implementation of the state’s DREAM Act would set a powerful precedent, one that would inform the debate on federal action going forward.

Improving the prospects of students who may otherwise find themselves priced out of higher education is part of the core mission of the UC. Many campus groups, such as IDEAS, have already done a good job of putting the plight of undocumented students in public view.

Ordinary UCLA students can help support the California DREAM Act as well. Our campus’s student population represents a good cross-section of California’s state legislature districts.

Lobby your local representatives through phone calls and letters, reminding them to vote in favor.

Make sure this bill doesn’t languish in the legislature as its federal counterparts have.

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